I was making a 100% olive oil (pomace) soap today. No scent. I thought that it might be fun to do a ghost swirl. I've never done one before. I watched several videos a few times, taking notes. I have also started incorporating citric acid into my lye solutions at 2% PPO.
I ran the numbers for the two different solutions through both Soap Calc and Soapee Lye Calc (so I could figure out the citric acid/ lye numbers).
Anyway...
I made a 45% lye concentration (the "non-gelling" portion) and a 30% lye concentration (the "gelling" portion) .
All of the other measurements were the same: oil, lye, citric acid, only the water was different.
I added the cooled lye solution (45%) to the first batch of oil. I stirred with a spatula for a bit. It soon turned from green to brown. I stick blended for a few seconds and it got so thick! Like a brown jelly. I was worried about false trace, so I kept trying to hand stir it (stick blending was impossible now), but it became way too thick. I spread and smooshed it into the bottom of my mold with a spatula.
I soaped the other solution, and it went a little better, no browning. It came to a medium-thick trace quickly, also, but not nearly as bad. Kind of like pudding. I put that into the mold. No swirls for me.
I'll try to take a pic in a few days when I cut it.
Anyone else have issues like this with either olive oil, or citric acid? Or maybe my olive oil is bad?
I ran the numbers for the two different solutions through both Soap Calc and Soapee Lye Calc (so I could figure out the citric acid/ lye numbers).
Anyway...
I made a 45% lye concentration (the "non-gelling" portion) and a 30% lye concentration (the "gelling" portion) .
All of the other measurements were the same: oil, lye, citric acid, only the water was different.
I added the cooled lye solution (45%) to the first batch of oil. I stirred with a spatula for a bit. It soon turned from green to brown. I stick blended for a few seconds and it got so thick! Like a brown jelly. I was worried about false trace, so I kept trying to hand stir it (stick blending was impossible now), but it became way too thick. I spread and smooshed it into the bottom of my mold with a spatula.
I soaped the other solution, and it went a little better, no browning. It came to a medium-thick trace quickly, also, but not nearly as bad. Kind of like pudding. I put that into the mold. No swirls for me.
I'll try to take a pic in a few days when I cut it.
Anyone else have issues like this with either olive oil, or citric acid? Or maybe my olive oil is bad?
